Last year, AWS launched the APN Global Startup Program, a sort of AWS’s answer for mid to late-stage startups deeply involved with Amazon Web Services technologies. Following year, AWS wants to expand that offering, and today it announced some updates to the program at the Partner keynote at AWS re Invent.
AWS re:Invent expands startup assistance program
While startups technically have to pay a $2,500 fee if accepted to the program, AWS typically refunds that fee, says Doug Yeum, head of the Global Partner Organization at AWS and they get a lot of benefits for being part of the program.
“While the APN has a $2,500 annual program fee, startups that are accepted into the invite-only APN Global Startup Program get that fee back, as well as free access to substantial additional resources both in terms of funding as well as exclusive program partner managers and co-sell specialists resources,” Yeum told TechCrunch.
And those benefits are pretty substantial, including access to a new “white-glove program” that lets them work with a program manager with direct knowledge of AWS and who has experience working with startups. Besides, participants get access to an ISV program to work more directly with these vendors to increase sales and access to data exchange services to move third-party data into the AWS cloud.
What’s more, they can apply to the new AI/ML Acceleration program. As AWS describes it, “This includes up to $5,000 AWS credits to fund experiments on AWS services, enabling startups to explore AWS AI/ML tools that offer the best fit for them at low risk.”
Finally, they get partially free to access the AWS Marketplace, offsetting the first five offerings marketplace listing fees. Some participants will also get access to AWS sales to help use the large company’s power to drive a startup’s sales.
While you can apply to the program, the company also recruits individual startups that catch its attention. “We also proactively invite mid to late-stage startups built on AWS that, based on market signals, are showing traction and offer interesting use cases for our mutual enterprise customers,” Yeum explained.
Among the companies currently involved in the program are HashiCorp, Logz.io, and Snapdocs. Interested startups can apply to the APN Global Startup website.
